Installation when you are root or the webmaster

When you are root or the webmaster on the host you want to install MoinMoin on, you can place the software in a "standard" location, and also better integrate MoinMoin into your webserver. Especially, you can use a "nice" base URL that does not include "cgi-bin" or "moin.cgi" at all.

Most GNU/Linux distributions come with Apache pre-installed. In the following description, we assume the file system layout of a SuSE 7.0 system, that is:

/etc/httpd/httpd.conf - the main httpd configuration file

/var/log/httpd/error_log - log containing error messages

Installing MoinMoin

Before creating a wiki instance, you have to download and install the basic MoinMoin software. We assume you already have downloaded the distribution archive to "/tmp" 1.

This will install all necessary files into the sys.prefix directory of your Python interpreter (usually either "/usr" or "/usr/local"), and create a "install.log" file listing all the files that are created there. The command "python -c 'import sys; print sys.prefix'" will tell you where your Python interpreter is installed, we assume "/usr/local" here.

If you want to install the current development version from CVS, replace "/tmp" with your "moin" working directory. (1)

Creating a wiki instance

You could run your wiki directly using the sample wiki created in "/usr/local/share/moin", but this is not recommended for two reasons:

updating your wiki is more complicated and more dangerous.

creating a second wiki instance, even if you currently don't plan for one, is much easier.

We need to know what user and group your Apache server runs on, so issue this command:

"mywiki" is the name of your wiki instance, you might want to chose a different name best fitting the intended use of this instance; just don't name it simply "wiki", because that would result in problems later on.

The first line you only need once; the second line is needed once for each wiki instance (of course, each one with another wiki name and path).

That is all, restart your Apache server ("/etc/rc.d/apache restart" on SuSE) and try to access your new-born wiki with the URL "http://127.0.0.1/mywiki/". You should see the FrontPage, try to edit and save it, and if that works, see if your edit is reflected on the RecentChanges page.

Finally, edit "moin_config.py" and at least change "sitename" and "logo_url" to some personal values:

sitename = 'My Wiki'
logo_url = '/images/mywiki-logo.gif'

For a personal or intranet installation, you'll normally also add the line

allowed_actions = ['DeletePage', 'AttachFile']

Troubleshooting

The first thing to do when your wiki does not work as expected is to issue the command "tail /var/log/httpd/error_log" to display the most recent errors. Usually, you will get a hint on what went wrong, like missing file system permissions. Also, always consult the HelpOnInstalling/TroubleShooting page for further hints on your problem.

Dueling Pythons

The most common problem you might encounter is when you have Python 1.5.2 installed into "/usr", and a newer Python distribution into "/usr/local"; this is typical for GNU/Linux distributions that still come bundled with version 1.5.2 of Python.

In that case, if you enter "python" on your prompt, you will usually get the more recent Python interpreter, because "/usr/local/bin" is in your PATH. The situation is different in your webserver environment, and thus you might have to change the bang path of "moin.cgi", like this:

"""
MoinMoin - CGI Driver Script
...
"""

Distutils does not work

If you have problems with the distutils install step, note that you need to have the Python development package installed on some Unix distributions. On Mandrake, you need to "rpm -i python-devel-2.1.1-3mdk.i586.rpm".

Missing file permissions

If you are root, the installed files may be readable only by root, but they must also be readable by the web server before the wiki will work. This includes both the Python modules and the site itself. For the data directory, the web server also needs write access. To fix this, first find out where the Python module directory is; look in install.log, or run the command:

Note that by making everything under /usr/local/share/moin world-readable, local users can read the files containing your wiki. You don't really need to do that, since the mywiki directory is owned by the webserver. If you don't want that, you do a "chmod -R o-rwx share/moin/mywiki" after the above commands.

Installation into your home directory

Installation into your shell account's home directory is typically used on a host shared by many users and where you are not the root user. This usually implies that you cannot change the httpd.conf file, and also you cannot copy files into the machine's cgi-bin and htdocs directories. For this situation, Apache includes the UserDir directive, which maps all URLs that start with "/~username" to a directory in your home directory, where you have write permissions and thus can install MoinMoin.

Making sure /~username URLs work

This kind of setup can only work if your webmaster has configured the host's Apache server so that the UserDir mechanism works. Here's how to check for this:

You see here that we get a "200 OK" status response, which means that you can access your public_html area. If it does not work, you will probably get a "403 Forbidden" or a "404 Not Found" response. The first one normally indicates that you need to fix the permissions of your home directory (~) or your ~/public_html. But we also need to be able to execute CGI scripts, so we test that, too.

The command line examples show your input in bold typewriter, and the sample output in plain typewriter. The examples use "jh" as the user's name, which means you have to replace your own one whereever "jh" appears. The same is true for version numbers (0.11) and download URLs.

Getting the distribution archive and doing the basic installation

The following commands will fetch and install the nightly CVS tarball, i.e. the current development version. To get the official distribution version, use an appropriate URL.

Setting up public_html and testing the installation

To be able to execute the CGI script in your home directory, you need to extend Python's path within that script, and possibly adapt the bang path (that is the first line of the script). So, change "moin.cgi" similarly to this diff:

Finally, you can test your wiki installation by running the MoinMoin CGI Diagnosis:

lynx -dump http://localhost/~jh/moin.cgi?test

And now, your wiki should work and is available at the URL "http://localhost/~jh/moin.cgi". Conclude your tests by editing and saving the FrontPage and checking out RecentChanges, which should reflect that edit.